Staying Healthy

Everywhere you look there is a new diet that promises to trim the fat in weeks. There's the west coast diet, Atkins's diet, low carb diet, low sodium diet, Mediterranean diet, Japanese diet, egg white diet, and so on. How is a person to cut through all the "expert" advice out there to get to the heart of things? Well, this non-expert can answer that for you.

Have you noticed a change in your dishes? That's right, a change in your dishes. Next time you find yourself at a restaurant take note of the size of the dish. They should look familiar to you. They are the same size as a serving platter in your home china hutch. Why the size? Well as Americans we have become enamored with bigger meals.

Lets explore the history, briefly. Think of the saying "bigger is better", now think of the great American SUV. What about the "great frontier" or the great American railway. As a culture we have always had a preference for the extreme. Extreme sports, supercharged Ford Mustangs and now the supercharged meal. First we had a 1/4 pounder, then a 1/3 pounder followed by a 1/2 pound burger.

I don't want to comment on American ego here, I just want to point out that we like our "money's worth" when it comes to things and food is no exception. Eating a balanced diet is great, if and only if you don't eat a double balanced diet, or if you opted for the "extra value sized" balanced diet.

Want the secret to healthy living? Everything in moderation. Don't go back for seconds, in fact don't even finish your firsts. If you want a sure fire way of cutting your meals back, purchase smaller plates. In that way, your psychological experience will still be a full plate, but your waist-line will thank you for it.

Out side of that, stay active. It used to be we all had to "work" for a living. Now days we have to expend even more time in our busy day just to stay active. Here is an added bonus piece of advice, start small but stick to it. Once you have any pattern developed its 100 times easier to expand it than if you started big and then failed. Set yourself up for success - anyone with a pragmatic business mind should appreciate that.

Good luck!